Andrea Pitzer
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andreapitzer.bsky.social
Andrea Pitzer
@andreapitzer.bsky.social
51K followers 1.2K following 4.8K posts
Books! One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World, & a Nabokov bio. Now working on Snowblind: Death on the Polar Ice. Former karateka & record store clerk. Newsletter & podcast: andreapitzer.com.
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andreapitzer.bsky.social
Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · Nov 10
I currently have a newsletter in which I write regularly about how societies devolve into authoritarianism & what that means right now in the US & around the world. It also features essays about my unsettled childhood in West Virginia. Soon, it will also include art, surprises, & links to resources.
Degenerate Art
Andrea Pitzer on politics and history, the Arctic, and Appalachian exile.
degenerateart.beehiiv.com
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
maddow.bsky.social
Do we need to say it louder? Here. Louder.

" Federal courts in Alabama are using a law last applied during the U.S. internment [incarceration] of people of Japanese descent during World War II to charge immigrants who don’t register themselves..."

www.al.com/news/2026/01...
Alabama uses Japanese American Internment era law to charge immigrants who don’t self-register
Alabama is finding new ways to criminally charge undocumented immigrants
www.al.com
January 18, 2026 at 12:28 AM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
jamellebouie.net
also this is interesting given the circumstances
January 17, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
xopherbesinger.bsky.social
People in a bar putting together whistlers and zines
January 17, 2026 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
adamrothman.bsky.social
By saying that territorial expansion is in our blood, Schmitt is quite literally articulating a "blood and soil" imperialism.
samd.bsky.social Sam @samd.bsky.social · 20h
the fact that Republican senators like Schmitt can’t even write a fascist screed on their own and instead have to rely on chatGPT perfectly captures the unique combination of evil and stupid that defines the modern Republican Party
Eric Schmitt • @Eric_Schmitt X.com Territorial expansion is a time-honored American tradition—think Louisiana Purchase, Alaska. We're a frontier people—it's in our blood. Acquiring Greenland isn't a silly idea. It makes all the sense in the world. Here's why.
January 17, 2026 at 8:19 PM
andreapitzer.bsky.social
As someone who worked retail for a time and had to throw customers out of the store and deal with everything from armed robbery to shoplifting, I guarantee you the staff at most establishments are already having to navigate complicated or even dangerous bullshit.
charlottegarden.bsky.social Charlotte Garden @charlottegarden.bsky.social · 20h
The general theme of this commentary is "stop asking MN companies to ban ICE from their properties." The argument is that enforcing the ban would fall to individual low-paid employees, who would be placed in danger.

tcbmag.com/should-busin...
If a business declares that ICE is not allowed on its property, someone may reasonably be expected to have to enforce that rule. In the current environment, that “someone” would not likely be a corporate vice president or a public relations team member. It would be the store employees in the parking lot. It would be the 19‑year‑old team member collecting carts. It would be the assistant manager walking out to address a complaint. It would be the everyday workers who did not sign up to confront federal agents, de‑escalate tense situations, or become the face of a political conflict.
January 17, 2026 at 8:14 PM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
ziibiing.com
someone popped into my comments and was like “is anyone doing laundry for folks afraid to leave their house?” because their laundromat is usually full and is empty.

what an amazing idea. make a google form. send the link to people with a resource directory. start doing laundry.
January 17, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
we are going to win
January 17, 2026 at 5:52 PM
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andreapitzer.bsky.social
The Friday roundup is out, just under the wire! With links to this week's podcast episode. Also: with enough grim news on everyone's plate already, I wrote about a handful of good things that happened this week that you might have missed.
January 16 Friday roundup
Links to this week's podcast episode! Also, good things will happen, too.
degenerateart.beehiiv.com
January 17, 2026 at 4:48 AM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
anatosaurus.bsky.social
"Vast majority of men are only willing to engage in public violence if they feel like the people around them will approve of — and reward them for — that violence. ICE Watch works because it surrounds men seeking approval with people loudly expressing their disapproval."
www.ms.now/opinion/minn...
January 17, 2026 at 4:51 AM
andreapitzer.bsky.social
The Friday roundup is out, just under the wire! With links to this week's podcast episode. Also: with enough grim news on everyone's plate already, I wrote about a handful of good things that happened this week that you might have missed.
January 16 Friday roundup
Links to this week's podcast episode! Also, good things will happen, too.
degenerateart.beehiiv.com
January 17, 2026 at 4:48 AM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
jennyholzer.bsky.social
THE SUM OF YOUR ACTIONS DETERMINES WHAT YOU ARE
January 16, 2026 at 3:34 AM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
phillewis.bsky.social
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — US judge rules federal officers in Minneapolis-area immigration operation can’t detain or tear gas peaceful protesters.
January 17, 2026 at 1:35 AM
andreapitzer.bsky.social
The Friday Degenerate Art post is somewhat delayed by a small (literally) crisis. Pour one out tonight for Coco the Magnificent, who liked company but loathed cuddles. If she could have spoken, she would've told everyone to fuck off. Here's hoping there's broccoli in guinea pig Valhalla.
A small squirrel-ish cocoa-colored guinea pig peeking out of a stuffed pumpkin bed sitting on top of a floral-print liner.
January 17, 2026 at 1:21 AM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
sludge.bsky.social
New: We built an interactive map of every ICE contractor working with the Trump administration.

readsludge.com/2026/01/16/t...
The Companies Behind ICE
Sludge built an interactive map of every ICE contractor working with the Trump administration.
readsludge.com
January 16, 2026 at 8:19 PM
andreapitzer.bsky.social
Weiss is much like Trump in that she's both consistent in character yet somehow always tripping upstairs to her next, bigger grift.
ositanwanevu.com Osita Nwanevu @ositanwanevu.com · 1d
Apropos of nothing, let's check in with how things are going at Bari Weiss's free speech university. www.politico.com/news/magazin...
Most people didn’t think much of it when the university dean, Ben Crocker, called a student named Dan into his office on Monday, Sept. 9, the first day of classes. But at 7:44 in the evening, they received an email from three administrators saying that Dan had been removed from campus, “transported to his home out of state,” and barred from further access to the university. The nature of the allegations concerned, at their core, a pair of charged statements Dan allegedly made that would be familiar to any Title IX officer. The first was a general statement implying that UATX girls carried themselves physically in a way that invited sexual assault. The second was a suggestion to a specific female student that she had carried herself in a way that invited sexual assault. Dan had already been the subject of some negative attention on campus because of provocative statements he’d made in a UATX-based Discord “introductions” chat. These included a challenge — “If I catch any of you guys in my stuff, I’ll kill you” — which was a reference to the 1981 movie “Stripes” and likely misunderstood by fellow students. In another exchange, a discussion of transgender issues, Dan expressed reservations about hormone treatment and said that he couldn’t wait “to play devil’s advocate for legalizing pedophilia.” Between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m., Crocker visited the dorms, where he hosted a meeting on the roof to discuss the issue with students. Crocker’s message was that Dan’s conduct had been evaluated to be a “credible threat” — a phrase that would be repeated by the administration many times over the following days. Crocker then faced what one student attendee recalled as a “firing squad” of questions. Some students said that Dan had seemed off, but others saw his hasty removal as an example of the very cancel culture to which UATX was supposed to be the antithesis. Several students noted a lack of diversity. Consistent with its emphasis on “merit-based admissions,” UATX doesn’t publish demographic data. The students with whom I spoke said their classmates — and the college’s leadership — were overwhelmingly white, disproportionately came from wealthy families and had an overrepresentation of apparent neurodivergence. They found ideological diversity to be particularly lacking. “I didn’t realize exactly how conservative it would be,” one current student told me. “You know, when I hear free speech and open debate and all that jazz, I assumed that there was going to be a more equal amount of political views, and there wasn’t.” Classes weren’t as innovative as most students expected. “Year one was exceptionally boring,” the student said. “They did great books, they just didn’t do it in a great way,” said another student, who lamented the amount of memorization required. “I thought we were going to be intensely debating,” he said. Several students shared course syllabi with me. Most are easy enough to imagine being offered on any campus — with the notable exception of math and science. “The math classes go over algebra you learned in ninth grade,” a student told me. “There was just nothing there.” He described the offering as “schizophrenic” and described a class he’d taken at University of Texas at Austin as “exponentially more important.” Indeed, the syllabus I reviewed for a class called “Intellectual Foundations of Science II” covered a range of topics unusual for a science class including “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.” A student who’d taken the course shared a slide with me on “ensoulment” — the principally religious question of when a soul enters the human body — and said that the class had been told that IVF but not abortion could be consistent with the Catholic belief about ensoulment. The poor quality of the science offerings had bothered Heying and Pinker. “Others thought I was the token liberal,” Heying told me, “but I came to understand myself as the token scientist.” In an email, Pinker wrote, “They should have hired a widely esteemed scientist and proven program builder to set up their science division.” Another surprising similarity with other colleges stemmed directly from Dan’s expulsion: The students feared cancellation. “At any moment a frivolous Title IX complaint could be filed against you,” a former student told me. “I’ve never felt my speech was so chilled as it was in the classroom at UATX.” During the many conversations I had reporting this story, two questions came up more than any other. The first: Where was Bari Weiss? Many of the people I interviewed told me about internal conversations and shared internal emails. Weiss, who remains on the board of trustees, was almost never present in the conversations as they were related to me, and while I saw many emails on which Kanelos and Ferguson were copied, I never saw any including Weiss. speaks onstage during an event in New York City, on Nov. 19, 2024. | Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free Press One person I spoke to, who was present during the early planning stages, told me that Weiss was “very elusive” and almost never present in person. This was ironic since UATX was closely associated with Weiss — a bust of whom now resides in the school library. Weiss, meanwhile, has only risen further during the Trump 2.0 era and is now editor-in-chief of CBS News, where she has been criticized as genuflecting to the Trump administration. A spokesperson for CBS News did not respond to a request for comment from Weiss. One former member of the development team told me that they would routinely ask prospective donors how they got to know UATX. “Eighty percent of the time, the answer was Bari Weiss,” they said. “It was very often referred to as Bari Weiss’ University, or Bari Weiss’ University Project, or Bari Weiss’ University of Austin.” For several people, this was a source of resentment. “I don’t care whether she wants to pretend this is all gone now — she is the reason that this place exists. She was huge, she was held in such high regard, she had such an enormous impact,” the former staffer said. “I want her to be held to account,” she added. “I’m pissed.”
January 16, 2026 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
dansinker.com
This is the most important part. You need whistles we send whistles. You don't pay, you just get whistles.
mostlybree.kitrocha.com Bree @mostlybree.kitrocha.com · 1d
We do not accept payment for whistles, and will ship anywhere between 100 and 1000. If you know someone with an org that needs even more than that, they can reach out and we can work with them!

Do not be afraid to ask for 100 whistles if you just want to radicalize your PTA group. WE WANT THAT! 💓
January 16, 2026 at 4:57 PM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
justplainbob.bsky.social
Update: A judge has ruled that ICE must release Gibson by noon on Friday.
January 16, 2026 at 3:22 AM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
lhertzel.bsky.social
One of the stories that makes me the saddest out of this ICE invasion is one out of the Minnesota Star Tribune today about ICE agents eating at a little Mexican restaurant in the small town of Willmar, Minn, —and then, when they were done, arresting some of the workers.
January 16, 2026 at 12:56 AM
andreapitzer.bsky.social
Somebody tell Trump everyone on the Moon wants to see his Nobel Peace Prize.
January 16, 2026 at 2:02 AM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
adamrothman.bsky.social
"a colossal makeshift tent encampment on the Mexican border"
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
A homicide ruling would almost certainly draw attention to Camp East Montana, a colossal makeshift tent encampment on the Mexican border where migrants have reported substandard conditions and physical abuse, and ICE’s own inspectors have cited dozens of violations of federal detention standards.
January 15, 2026 at 11:05 PM
andreapitzer.bsky.social
You'd be amazed how many editors, when I've tried to pitch pieces using that particular term, would not accept its use about anything currently happening in the US (though some were willing to go there, thank goodness).
adamrothman.bsky.social Adam Rothman aced his cognitive test @adamrothman.bsky.social · 2d
I wonder if there is a more commonly used term for such a structure @andreapitzer.bsky.social
January 16, 2026 at 12:39 AM
andreapitzer.bsky.social
There will be more of this until we stop ICE, because this isn’t about immigration enforcement.
Medical examiner believes death of man in ICE custody was homicide, recording says
A fellow detainee says he witnessed Geraldo Lunas Campos being choked to death by guards at the ICE detention center in Texas on Jan. 3.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 15, 2026 at 11:21 PM
andreapitzer.bsky.social
He looks like late-career Pee-wee Herman as the villain in a movie where he plays both himself and his evil twin brother.
wesleymorgan.bsky.social Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 2d
Another very good one featured here: Greg Bovino, the roving commander of the administration’s immigration crackdowns, yelling at protesters on Sunday in Minneapolis.

Bovino is going to be with us for a long time; he’s clearly trying to make himself the paramilitary version of a celebrity general.
January 15, 2026 at 9:53 PM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
thefarce.org
The US government is attacking its own people (and others), but you don't have to spend your life feeling helpless or marinating in fear and fury.

In the new NEXT COMES WHAT, Andrea explains why we need to overcome the glib instincts of centrist pundits to come together in useful ways.
Finding Your Outside Voice
Podcast Episode · Next Comes What · 01/15/2026 · 26m
podcasts.apple.com
January 15, 2026 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
joshuajfriedman.com
Stars and Stripes has historically been a legit news operation with congressionally mandated independence—but which has (per WaPo) recently started asking job applicants if they support Trump’s policies www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
January 15, 2026 at 8:19 PM